Man gets 47 years in child's killing

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. - It's been more than two years since little Daniel "DJ" Cruz was killed, and the trial in his death focused on all the "bad things" that happened, his mother said in Superior Court on Friday.

But at the sentencing of the man convicted of beating her baby to death, she wanted to tell the judge about her son.

"He was everything I could ask for and more. ... Now I feel empty and hollow inside, like someone ripped out my heart," said Cynthia Diamond of Mount Laurel.

"I miss him so much. I wish I had more time with him. There is so much he never got to do. He never got to experience life and only had one of each holiday. ... He never even had a second birthday."

Moments later, Superior Court Judge Jeanne T. Covert sentenced Meredith Rogers, formerly of Mount Holly, to 47 years in state prison, ordering him to serve nearly 40 years before he is eligible for parole.

In November, a jury convicted Rogers, 31, of aggravated manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of the 17-month-old boy.

He maintains his innocence and plans to appeal, defense attorney Edward Crisonino said.

Authorities alleged that Rogers, Diamond's former boyfriend, was baby-sitting Cruz in the boy's Palmyra home when he violently beat and shook him twice over a 12-hour period between Nov. 24 and 25, 2008, leaving what a medical examiner testified was the impression of his knuckles on the child's cheek.

Dr. Lucy Rorke-Adams, a nationally renowned expert on child abuse with about 40 years of experience, said Cruz suffered some of the most severe injuries she had ever seen to his brain, eyes and spinal cord.

"This was not simply a shaken-baby case. This was a shaken-and-then-beaten-baby case," Burlington County Assistant Prosecutor Jason Saunders said in arguing for a 50-year sentence. "The testimony was that he was holding DJ and treating the child's head essentially as a punching bag."

Rogers testified that Cruz fell down the steps into a baby gate Nov. 24 and that he found him unresponsive later that night. Medical experts said the boy's injuries were inconsistent with a fall and showed some of the classic tell-tale signs of child abuse, including violent shaking and blunt force head trauma.

Rogers did not speak at his sentencing because he was "too upset and nervous," said Crisonino, who read a letter Rogers wrote.

"First and foremost, I maintain my innocence. I never put my hands on DJ. I'm not this horrible person described in court. What happened was an accident, not a crime," he wrote.

A father of two, Rogers wrote that he has been around children his whole life and that it was "ridiculous" to think he would ever hurt a child.

He said he would "always have a place in my heart" for the victim and his family.

Rogers has been in Burlington County Jail since the Nov. 17 guilty verdict.

Diamond, who shook her head as the letter was read, did not address Rogers directly in her victim impact statement. For about a year after Rogers' arrest, Diamond initially supported him and did not believe he had hurt her son. But she testified against him.

"My son, now my angel, never deserved the beating he got. He never deserved to suffer being beaten to death," she said Friday. "It makes me sick that there are people out there who can do this."

She wore a T-shirt airbrushed with a photo of the baby smiling on the front and the words "Temporarily Taken, But Never Forgotten, Love Mommy" on the back.

Diamond described a child the family thought was destined to play the piano and be a football star because of his long fingers, blue eyes, curls and long eyelashes. She said he could light up a room with his smile.

Through letters written by her daughters, ages 9 and 11, Diamond described their "Papa Bear" and how he would fall asleep while rubbing the tag of a blanket on his nose. She told of a funny, mischievous boy who gave big hugs.

In determining Rogers' sentencing, Covert said that she found he was a persistent offender and that an extended term was warranted. Rogers has three previous convictions for drugs and handgun possession and has spent the majority of his adulthood either on probation, on parole, in county jail or in state prison, the judge said.

Rogers was out of prison for two years at the time of Cruz's death.

Covert said she took into account the "especially heinous" nature of the crime and the victim's particular vulnerability as a result of his age, pointing out that the child had more than 80 bruises and was violently struck in the face.

"At 17 months, he could not protect or defend himself," she said.

Covert also found there was a risk that Rogers would re-offend because of his previous convictions and escalating criminal behavior.

"It's obvious that the defendant could not control his temper, his anger or his rage," she said.

The victim's two stepsisters also spoke Friday, telling how the baby reunited their family and was loved by so many. One sister said she felt she had failed him by not protecting him better.

"Words can't explain what it meant to be playing with him one day and the next for him to be dead. Words can't express what it was to not only bury him, but to see him distorted and hurt. We haven't been able to put DJ to rest," Samantha Cruz said. "All we want now is justice so he can finally come to rest."

Danielle Camilli can be reached at 609-267-7586, dcamilli@phillyBurbs.com or twitter.com/dcamilli.

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